Red red winnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeee. I’ve been rooting around in the cellar lately for some off the beaten path grapes. The box from Bonny Doon called my name (what, your wines don’t speak to you? I know Thea’s do.) and I came up with the 2007 Bonny Doon Ca’ Del Solo Nebbiolo. The Nebbiolo retails for $40, has a screw cap closure, and clocks in at 13.7% alcohol by volume.

Four takeways from this wine:

1.) Bonny Doon is doing some interesting things with lots of grapes that other CA wineries don’t even touch. I appreciate unique.

2.) Randall Graham (Owner, Winemaker, Chief Bottlewasher, etc., at Bonny Doon) is a pretty fabulous speaker. I got to see him at the Blogger Conference in OR this summer.

3.) I thought the wine stood up really well on its own. If I were going to drink it with food I’d probably go with beef stroganoff.

4.) This wine has a lot of time left to age on it.

On the nose I got spice, pepper, cherry, currant, plum, baking spice, cinnamon, and flowers. In the mouth I found black cherry, plum, very dark fruit, and spice. It had great acidity, a long finish, and good structure. The wine really needed time to open up, so I’d give it some more time in the bottle or definitely decant it for a couple of hours before serving.